“For some time, environmental and anticapitalist activists have developed a strong critique of unsustainable globalised neoliberal capitalism, while local economic development policy makers have recognised that many communities suffer from entrenched worklessness and a lack of opportunities; both are interested in developing sustainable livelihoods and have wanted to develop local economies. Based on fieldwork in the US, the UK and Germany, the paper examines the concrete successes of recently developed local paper-based currencies, arguing that in some places alliances between green activists and those wanting to develop the local economy, including local business people, can develop robust local currency systems that facilitate local circulations, but often circulate in areas too small to be sustainable over the long-run. Learning lessons from Germany, the paper argues that these local currency networks could, in time, help develop new forms of local production.”